Joe Public reflects on a successful 2022

2022 was quite the year for Joe Public. Pepe Marais, co-founder and integrated group chief creative officer, was inducted into the Loeries Hall of Fame, while art director Raphael Janan Kuppasamy received the 2022 Loeries Young Creatives Award.

An agency client, Chicken Licken, walked away with the 2022 Loeries Brand of the Year at the same event — it was also the #AgencyLeaders2021 Most Admired Brand. Joe Public also rebranded and did away with the United in its name. 

The agency, which is 63% black- and 26% black female-owned, recorded revenue growth of 25% in 2022, and also grew its profit by 40% year on year. It expanded geographically to KwaZulu-Natal, retained all of its top-tiered clients and added new business of R40.5m.

It also secured the Nedbank Digital business account. Other account wins in late 2021 and 2022 included Good Hope FM, Hansa (December 2021) and Woolworths (October 2021).

Scopen’s Agency Scope 2021/22 SA report named Joe Public as its Agency of the Year, the number one Attractive Agency for clients, and the Best Agency to Work for in SA.

“We do formal relationship surveys with 14 of our top clients that account for 90% of revenue,” says Gareth Leck, Joe Public co-founder and GCEO. 

“The average survey score in the period under review was 81%, scoring in the excellent relationship range.”

In addition, Joe Public was ranked the number one Creative Agency in the Middle East and Africa region for four consecutive years (2018—2021) at The Loeries; the Ciclope Agency of the Year for the fourth year in a row; and The One Show 2022 Middle East & Africa Independent Agency of the Year. 

In the 2022 World Advertising Research Centre Creative 100 rankings, Joe Public was ranked the 36th Most Creative Agency globally and was the only agency to make the top 50 from Africa, coming in as the number one agency in Africa.

This article was first published on January 19 2023 on marklives.com.

This article was paid for by Joe Public.